Wake Up
by Neleam
Summary: Hermione and Draco have an arrangement. The library is a sanctuary for both of them; they will not fight or torment each other there. Everything said or done within those walls stays within those walls. Draco/Hermione
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** In its use of intellectual property and characters belonging to JK Rowling, Warner Bros, Bloomsbury Publishing, et cetera, this work is intended to be transformative commentary on the original. No profit is being made from this work. Any similarities to other fanfiction stories are completely coincidental.

* * *

It was early in the morning when I woke up. The sun hadn't even risen yet. I got out of bed and walked over to the window by my bed. I moved the green velvet curtains and saw torrential rain coming down. Great, I couldn't even fly around the pitch between classes. I walked away from the window and got dressed, putting my prefect badge on last. I had signed up for the first shift of rounds. It was nice to wander the castle when no one else would be awake, made my job even easier. I grabbed my wand and book bag and left for the day. I wasn't even ten minutes into my shift when I found a student.

"What the bloody hell are you doing, Mudblood?" I had walked into a dirty classroom during my morning rounds and saw knitted clothes throughout the room. I had only just woken up, it was too bloody early to be dealing with whatever insane idea Granger had concocted today. Granger was currently trying to hide the clothes beneath various piles of mess.

"The house elves have to clean this room. I leave clothing for them to have, so they can be free." I drew my wand and vanished all the clothing. She looked up at me, anger filling her eyes, she was pissed off by what I had done.

"Get this through your head, they don't want to be freed, they deserve their station. You don't want to suffer the repercussions of freeing them." I snarled at her.

"Repercussions?" She looked up at me curiously, the anger in her eyes had been replaced with confusion. I just stared back, realizing what I had said to her. Shit, I couldn't back track. "Malfoy?" I turned and left without responding.

* * *

I was running through the manor, I was seven at the time.

"DRACO!" He would find me eventually; I only had a few minutes head start. I continued crashing through doors, trying to find a place to hide. I finally made it to the library and hid in the window seat, behind the curtain. I held my breath.

"Did you think you could hide from me, boy?" His voice was deadly quiet. I didn't move. He ripped me from my spot, throwing me on the floor. "What you did was inexcusable."

"You hurt him, he didn't deserve it," I said while raising myself from the floor. His can whipped across my face and knocked me back down.

"They are lower than us. He lived to serve and with that comes repercussions for mistakes." He snarled at me. I don't know what I was thinking next.

"No," the can contacted again. My wyes watered and I whimpered. The cane contacted my body and a sharp pain radiated through my torso.

"Malfoy's don't cry. And they don't give clothing to elves. Do I make myself clear?" I nodded. He struck me with his can again.

"You will speak when spoken to!" He yelled at me.

"Yes, sir," I laid still on the ground, waiting for further punishment. I closed my eyes and heard his footsteps leaving the room. I stayed there until I couldn't hear him at all. I slowly moved my aching body up and went to a shelf and got one of my books. I had hidden books randomly throughout the massive library so that father would not find them. I took my latest purchase and hid in my window seat behind the curtain. I opened and started reading The BFG.

I woke up with a shake to my shoulder. I was in the Hogwarts library in my usual spot, in the back in a window seat.

* * *

"Malfoy, the library is closing," Granger was looking at me. We had an understanding that we would wake each other when the library closed, since the both of us practically lived there. We didn't have an audience so we had a truce to leave each other alone. We both escaped here, it was big enough for us to avoid each other for the most part. Occasionally one of us would give in and ask the other for help with class work given that we were both the top of our class. Neither of us said it but I knew at least that she was the only one who challenged me intellectually, and I think she thought that way as well.

"Malfoy, can I ask?"

"No."

"But you were talking in your sleep again." She was looking at me with those damn brown eyes again, the ones that got me to do things for her.

"Granger, we agreed that nothing said or done here leaves the walls of the library." I said to her sternly.

"Did he…" I interrupted

"I'm warning you, Granger, stop now."

"But."

"Don't," She turned and took a few steps from me but stopped at the end of the row of books.

"I know our agreement, you should know though that you can talk to me, I wouldn't break the agreement." She left me then.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** In its use of intellectual property and characters belonging to JK Rowling, Warner Bros, Bloomsbury Publishing, et cetera, this work is intended to be transformative commentary on the original. No profit is being made from this work. Any similarities to other fanfiction stories are completely coincidental.

* * *

"Malfoy," She shook me awake again. "Here, I marked your page." She handed me the book I had been reading. She sat down in a chair next to my usual spot.

"What do you want?" I said, looking out of the window at the towers of Hogwarts.

"You know the message for that book, don't you?"

"Yes, it's not the first time that I have read it."

"Why are you reading it then?" I stayed silent while she looked at me. We sat like that for at least five minutes. "Why do you call me mudblood?"

"Because you are," I replied without looking at her.

"It's derogatory, muggleborn…"

"Isn't what my father would call you. Look, I don't care what is politically correct."

"It's hard to break from cultural norms, I get it. Especially with who your father is."

I turned my head and glared at her. "You don't understand anything."

"Malfoy, we have sat in this library for five years. And you talk in your sleep. I know what books you read. I know you want to break from your culture. To Kill a Mockingbird, Invisible Man, Othello, The Diary of a Young Girl. Do I need to continue? Muggle books about bigotry and racism."

"Granger, I don't want to discuss this."

"I don't care, this is too much for you to keep inside. You need someone who you can be yourself around. Let me be that, you know I won't tell anyone. No one has any idea that we help each other with homework." She was practically begging me. I knew she was sincere but it wasn't that simple.

"If you know so much, then you know why I can't just let loose. Everything I believe, I can't believe. I think one thing and say another out loud. You see how the world treats the Weasleys? My father would actually kill me. Fuck the fact that I'm the only heir. He'd rather risk the money disappearing to the ministry or to another pureblood family like the Parkinsons then allow the real me to represent the Malfoy name."

"Malfoy, I know why you can't show yourself in public, I'm not saying that you should change your façade. Just know that I don't judge and I would never breath a word of it. Come on, Madam Pince is tapping her foot, we need to leave." And that was that, we gathered our stuff and left. I didn't know what choice I would make. Having someone to talk to might make things easier but it would just put the both of us in danger when someone found out my actual beliefs.

* * *

"Granger, wake up" She raised her head out of her textbook. She was at her table in the library, the one in the back corner on the wall opposite my window. We could always see each other while working, it was annoying, but no one ever came down those two aisles. I turned to leave her. Ever since her big speech about knowing me, I barely spoke to her, I even got a poor grade on an assignment because I refused to ask her for help.

"Wait! I have something for you."

"I don't want it."

"Just take them. If you don't take them now then they will arrive with the morning post. A big package with a shiny boy with a 'From: Hermione Granger' tag arriving for the Slytherin prince at his house's table." I stopped and walked back to her. She had that damn grin on her face, the huge one she wore when she had finished a particularly difficult arithmancy assignment. She handed me three books.

"The Ego and the Id, The Hobbit, and Where the Red Fern Grows?" I looked at her, trying to figure out what she was doing.

"Just giving you some more reading material. I've never seen you with any of these so I figured you hadn't read them. I cried at the end of that one," she pointed at the Wilson Rawls book. "That's my personal copy, I expect it back." She gathered her things and left me there, staring after her. She wasn't going to let me decide if I should open up to her, she had already decided for me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** In its use of intellectual property and characters belonging to JK Rowling, Warner Bros, Bloomsbury Publishing, et cetera, this work is intended to be transformative commentary on the original. No profit is being made from this work. Any similarities to other fanfiction stories are completely coincidental.

* * *

"Malfoy, wake up!" Hermione hissed at me. She was sitting at her new table that was next to my window seat. "You're talking about your task in your sleep." My eyes grew big, I held my breath. "No one else heard, but you need sleep, go to the Room of Requirements and sleep if you have to."

"I'm fine."

"You're forgetting to glamour the circles under your eyes, I'd offer to remind you but it would draw attention to the fact that you willingly talk to me." I looked at her and just shook my head. Then I sighed.

"You're right. I just don't know what to do! I'm racking my brain for a way to save my family. I can't defy that monster, he will kill them." I looked out the window and watched some students walking and laughing down in a courtyard. "He'll kill me." I said it quietly enough but I knew she heard me.

"Have you thought about telling…"

"He knows about the task. And Snape took an unbreakable vow. One of us will kill him by the end of the year."

"Have you made progress with the cabinet?" I wished she would talk about something else. This was going through my head enough already. I had confessed everything to her within three weeks of the new school year when we finally found ourselves alone in the library.

"Enough to please him," we were quiet for a bit. Hermione turned back to her essay. She got another page done before I spoke again. "He'll kill my mother if I don't let them into the school." Her quill stopped.

"You know how to fix it already, don't you?" She didn't even look up at me.

"Just about, I will wait until a month before school ends though to actually open it. That's as much as I can delay it without risking my mother's life."

"I can hide the younger students in a dungeon room or something, far away from the fight. Minimize the damage." She set her quill down and was rubbing her neck with her hands.

"You'll only raise suspicion for yourself. Potter and Weasley would know that you knew the plan, that you were helping me."

"Draco, I don't care if they know anymore."

"You have to maintain the trust you have built up with them. You have to help Potter defeat him. Hermione, even I know you are key to that. Potter knows I am a death eater but he thinks I chose to be. He will see you helping me as a betrayal." I was watching her, seeing her reaction. She just rested her hands in her lap and looked at her essay.

"I just want to help you. I want to help keep you alive." That was the one thing we never did, we never focused on the fact that I could be killed at any point this year for failing my task or taking too long. And we had done it twice now in five minutes. She was practically killing herself doing research to try and help me, trying to figure out a way to remove the mark. She had only suggested that I run once. She knew she couldn't convince me to so she never suggested it again.

"I don't deserve to be alive. I want to turn myself into the ministry. I want to break my wand in half. I fucking killed people to prove myself. My father made me torture muggles. I saw them beg for forgiveness. I saw hatred in their eyes. And I didn't show any sympathy. I showed no restraint. I saved my own ass. I should have turned and killed my father…"

"Draco! You made choices. You can't go back and change them. You have to remember that your choices do not define you. You can regret and wish but it does nothing." I opened my mouth to protest. "I'm not finished, you know what you are doing is wrong, you still have a heart. I don't give a damn what anyone else thinks, I know who you are and I would put my life in your hands."

I sighed, she was waiting for me to reply. I don't want her life in my hands, I don't want to come to that point and watch her killed at my hand. I didn't want to get to the point where I had to reveal myself to my father.

"Don't put your life in my hands." I hung my head. Hermione reached out and grasped my hand that was in my lap. She lifted my face with her other hand and looked me in the eye.

"Hey, I have before, and I will until the day I die." I remembered back to a time in the forbidden forest when we were gathering potion ingredients. We ended up surrounded by giant spiders and barely made it out alive. I had to run her to the hospital wing because she had been bitten. Luckily it was late and there weren't students to see me. Madam Pomfrey was the only one who knew. I begged her not to tell anyone that I had brought her. My father couldn't hear about it. I broke eye contact with her and looked back out the window. She finally released my hand and moved back to her essay.

"How are we going to protect the students?" I finally managed.

"We're prefects, I could plan a mandatory tutoring session for that night, get the other prefects to agree. The older students would be able to fight because they would still be in their dorms or spread out in the castle. The younger students would have prefects to protect them though, we could choose a classroom deep within the castle, possibly deep in the dungeons, furthest from the cabinet."

"That just might work, I can't think of how to make that any better. Start planning it with the prefects about two months before the end of the school year. I will give you an exact date when we get closer." I moved to the desk and pulled out some parchment. "Now, have you figured out the ingredients for that potion Snape wants brewed for extra credit?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** In its use of intellectual property and characters belonging to JK Rowling, Warner Bros, Bloomsbury Publishing, et cetera, this work is intended to be transformative commentary on the original. No profit is being made from this work. Any similarities to other fanfiction stories are completely coincidental.

* * *

I stalked into the library, I had passed several people on my way here who had turned and practically ran when they saw the mood I was in. I threw my bag on the table where Hermione was already working, making her jump and stare up at me, terrified.

"If they talk to you like that again I will hex them in the middle of class, Hermione. You have to either get them to shut the bloody hell up or you need new friends."

"What?"

"During transfiguration, that fucking Weasel practically gave you all his homework and didn't even ask to see if it was okay. Wait, that damn well better not be his homework in front of you." I went to grab what she was working on but she vanished it.

"He will fail out of Hogwarts if I don't help him."

"And that's his own bloody fault. Would you allow your daughter to be used like this? No, you wouldn't. Treat yourself with some self respect, Granger." She sat there quietly looking down at her hands. Her eyes had gotten wet, fuck, and I was the one who caused it. "Hermione, oh shit, I'm sorry." I knelt down next to her, running my hand up and down her back. She had only cried openly in front of me twice before. The first time was in third year and I watched from my window seat, I didn't dare go over and comfort her. Last time was at the beginning of this year when she had started sitting at the table next to my window seat. She was reading some sappy book and started crying toward the end. I had turned to her and asked if she was okay, to which she nodded. This time was different, I had caused the tears and I wanted to kill myself for doing so.

"I know he uses me, but he's one of the only friends that I have. You know how essentially he is to the group."

"He's not essential to the group. He has no worth."

"Draco, Harry needs him for support. Ron can provide support that I can't, and Ron has been there for everything so far. And I have told Ron to do his own work before, hell, I've screamed it at him multiple times and he always apologizes and then two days later he hands me his homework again." I looked at the ground, pissed off at the Weasel for using Hermione like that. And he knew he could get away with it because she had feelings for him. I knew she did. And I knew she was in the library whenever there wasn't class now so that she wouldn't have to see Ron and that damn Brown girl together. She wasn't even eating in the great hall anymore. As if her stomach had read my mind, it growled.

"Damn it." Hermione mumbled.

"When was the last time you ate?"

"I don't know."

"Granger…"

"This morning, I snuck down to the kitchen before your rounds. I had toast and tea." She wouldn't look me in the eye, she knew she was doing the wrong thing and waited for me to scold her.

"Let's go, you need to eat."

"What? But you'll be seen with me."

"And we'll say that we are doing prefect rounds, now grab your things and let's go." She packed her things up while I stood and got my bag. We left and walked down the halls, it was late enough that most students were in their common room. Once she got some food we sat in a corridor so that she could eat. I was going to hate myself for what I said next.

"Give me half of Weasel's work."

"No, you will only try and teach him a lesson and he will yell at me."

"I'm serious, no tricks, I will do the work for him. Just show me a sample of his handwriting so I can copy it." She looked at me like I had grown a second head. "You don't have the time to do homework for two students, Granger. Just let me help you. I'll give it back first thing in the morning."

"I don't know what to say."

"Then don't."

* * *

"Hermione, wake up," I said from my spot across the table from her. She had fallen asleep in her textbook with her hair covering her head and the entire book. She was exhausted from staying up and studying some advanced charms book. I didn't understand why she was studying for final exams at all, she knew the school would be destroyed before they happened. She just turned her head over to the other side of the book when I spoke.

"I'll make you more of those cookies if you let me sleep for five more minutes." She mumbled.

I smiled over at her and then got up to move behind her, I placed my hands on her sides which made her stiffen and got my mouth right next to her ear. "This is your warning, as much as I love your baking, I will make you laugh and Madam Pince will banish you from the library." That got her to sit straight up.

"Please don't tickle me again, Draco." I chuckled a smirk forming on my face.

"Do I still get some cookies? And you know you can't pass off the house elves baked goods again, yours are distinctly different." I looked over at her after sitting back down in my seat across the table. It was nice to be able to distract myself with her with all the shit that was happening right now. We had two months left until I was going to fix the cabinet and let chaos ensue.

"I know, I use too much cinnamon in everything. I just love the smell of it, and chocolate chip cookies do taste better with it, you even admitted that."

"Yes, your chocolate chip cookies are divine." I smiled over at her. She blushed looked down at her textbook, trying to figure out where she had left off.

I grabbed my arm as pain shot through it. I hissed and nearly fell out of my chair. Hermione rushed over and leaned against the table in front of me. She removed my hand, raised my shirt sleeve, and started massaging the spot. It was the only thing that eased the pain. I hated that he tried calling me during the school year, he had made it clear that he didn't expect me to come when called but that hadn't stopped him from making sure I knew when everyone else was meeting.

"It will pass, just focus on my voice, Draco. Remember how we were looking into dynasties last week in history and how they were tied to the magical world? I was reading more about the Tudor dynasty and how it was founded. I found some good information on the grandmother of Henry VII wife. She was pretty well known as being a witch. Focus on my eyes, Draco, look at me. Her daughter, Elizabeth, married into the York family and so the family switched from the Lancaster side to the York side. Elizabeth was queen so I haven't found any information on whether or not she was a witch. If she was, she hid it really well. Look at my eyes, Draco, focus on my voice. However she did supposedly curse whoever had killed her sons, the boys of the tower that mysteriously disappeared, to die after two generations, that the line would die out with only women who would not have produced heirs. Who knows if that is true or not but Mary and Elizabeth both didn't have known children. There you go, it's over. You're going to be okay." She continued to massage my arm. She didn't have to at this point but she had gotten in the habit of continuing in case he made a second call. Luckily I didn't have to suffer through that today.

"Thank you," I looked up at her and saw sadness in her eyes. Her beautiful, big, chocolate brown eyes. It wasn't the first time I had gotten the urge to kiss her but I knew better than to act on my feelings. I knew she was going to be on the run next year. She had told me what she thought Potter would do because of what he had learned about Voldemort this year. I couldn't start something when either of us could die before the war ended. It would be too painful.

"Draco, I was thinking." She stopped and I could see how nervous she was about what she wanted to say. "We've gotten really close in the last few years and…" I grabbed both of her hands with mine.

"Hermione, stop. You know as well as I why we shouldn't."

"I know," she sighed and looked down at our hands, "I just don't want to leave not knowing."

"You can't know everything, Hermione." I released her hands and reached into my bag and pulled out a book. "Here, this is for you, to read while you are gone." Her eyes were getting wet, every day neared the day when we had to say goodbye. We both knew the goodbye could be permanent. She took the book out of my hands and looked at it and smiled. "I hope you don't mind that I made a few notes in the margins, it is an excellent story. I can see why it made you cry at the end."

"And you didn't?" She questioned me with a smile on her face.

"Malfoys don't cry. And Hermione, wait to read it until after you leave, please."

"I promise that I won't open it until then." She smiled down at me. I longed to pull her into my lap and hold her close, to be able to feel her close to me. I wanted to at least give her that before we had to go separate ways. The book was the best I could do though. I hoped it was enough.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** In its use of intellectual property and characters belonging to JK Rowling, Warner Bros, Bloomsbury Publishing, et cetera, this work is intended to be transformative commentary on the original. No profit is being made from this work. Any similarities to other fanfiction stories are completely coincidental.

* * *

We all heard a weird noise above us. I looked up and saw Dobby loosening the chandelier above Bellatrix. Hermione was on the ground, unconscious from the torture. I had to make a decision or else her blood would be on my hands. I would never forgive myself if she died; I had almost killed my aunt earlier. Hearing Hermione scream was torture. And when she looked me in the eye, silently begging me to free her or kill her. I nearly lost it then.

The chandelier fell; I ran toward Hermione and scooped her up. I made my way to Potter and Weasley. Dobby popped over to them. I grabbed onto him.

"Dobby, go!" I yelled. He turned and I tightened my hold on Hermione. We fell onto a beach, Potter and Weasley were a good 50 meters from us. Hermione was lying next to me, and I couldn't tell if she was breathing. I took my wand and stopped the bleeding on her arm. Unfortunately that would scar. Seeing that word and knowing I couldn't remove it from her body, that was my breaking point. I held her close to me and let the tears flow

"Wake up, please please Hermione, wake up." I could hear Potter calling for help from Weasley, I didn't look over to see why though. "Please wake up." I would never forgive myself if she didn't wake up. Her hair was getting damp from the spray of the sea and my tears.

I would never hear her voice again. "Please wake up." She would never laugh again. "Please wake up." I would never give her another book. "Please Hermione, I can't watch you die. Please wake up." I just sat there and sobbed into her hair.

And then I felt it, her hand gripped my shirt tighter. "I told you I trusted you with my life." Her eyes weren't open but I could feel a change in her body. There was a strength that wasn't there a moment ago. I clutched her tighter and was crying for a completely different reason now.

"I thought you were dead, we hadn't had any sightings of you for moths. I thought you were dead in the middle of some woods. And then Bella, I didn't know how to save you. I couldn't stop here without getting us both killed."

"Shhhh…just hold me, please." And I did. I rocked us back and forth and stopped sobbing. "Draco, you were the only reason I got through that. I looked into your eyes and it gave me the strength to continue fighting her. I couldn't die without hearing you say something."

I pulled back from her a little. I pushed some hair out of her face and kissed her. I finally got to kiss her, this was the one thing I had wanted to do for the last three years and it was better than I had ever imagined it. In that one moment, while I was holding and kissing her, everything was perfect. Nothing else in the world mattered.

But then that moment ended. I was yanked back and a wand, my wand, was pointed at my throat. Potter was behind it.

"Harry! No!" Hermione said while getting to her feet.

"I should kill you now." Harry's eyes were filled with hatred.

"Harry, he's on our side. Put the wand down."

"That mark says otherwise."

"He had no choice, Harry." She was clinging onto him at this point, trying to get him to lower the wand.

"Bull shit"

"Please, he didn't confirm our identity at the manor, why would he have done that? Even if he could recognize you, he bloody well could recognize me." Harry dropped the wand a little and his eyes lost some of their hatred. It wasn't much but she was getting to him. I didn't realize I had been holding my breath till I let it out right then.

"He tried to kill Dumbledore."

"Snape took an unbreakable vow to fulfill the task if Draco didn't, there was no other way. Draco minimized the damage. He delayed the death as long as he could. I got the younger students to safety so they would be away from the fight."

Harry dropped his hand entirely and turned to face her. "What?"

"He's on our side." Hermione stepped back from him.

"No, you knew. You knew everything he was going to do and didn't tell me." Hermione opened her mouth but nothing came out. We were treading dangerous waters.

"Potter, it wouldn't have mattered if she had told you, the only thing it would have done was make you question her loyalty." The wand wasn't pointed at me so I figured it was safe to speak. I didn't know if my wand would be able to harm me but I wasn't risking anything.

"It all makes sense," Harry started walking around, he sounded like he had lost his mind. "You were always defending him, you were always in that damn library last year. You were meeting with him, weren't you? Weren't you!? How can you be on his side? How can you be dark? You are muggle born, they will just kill you!"

"We're not dark, I've done everything to help defeat you-know-who. I've found horcruxes. I've stayed with you through everything." Hermione was begging him to believe her.

"As a spy!"

"As your best friend!" That's when Weasley came over.

"What the bloody hell are you doing here?" He was looking straight at me. Hermione moved to step in front of me.

"Ronald, he's on…" that was all I heard before his fist connected with my face and I blacked out.

* * *

I could feel someone holding my hand, rubbing their thumb back and forth. I was laying on a bed or at least something more comfortable than the floor, and we were away from the sea. Then I felt the pain in my head. I groaned.

"Draco?" It was her voice, the day hadn't been a dream.

"I'm here." I said without opening my eyes. It felt like I had drank three full bottles of muggle liquor the night before.

"I got them to come around, they are not happy but they accept that we need your help. And that they couldn't get rid of you without me leaving." I opened my eyes to look at her. She was more beautiful then I remember. That wasn't saying she didn't look like she had taken a beating. She was bone thin and had circles under her eyes. "I left you once, Draco. I can't leave you again. It was too painful."

"You won't have to leave. And those tossers can't get rid of me. I've had you-know-who living with me for the last year. I'm not afraid of Potter and they certainly can't hurt me. I know how to survive."

"I know." She sat on my bed just holding my hand between hers and staring at it. I wasn't going to say anything right then to interrupt her thoughts. She looked over at me. "Do you want to sit up?" I nodded and she helped position pillows behind me so that I was still comfortable. And then she got on the bed and crawled up to me and wrapped her arms around me with her head on my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and rest my head down on hers.

"I read Where the Red Fern Grows everyday in the woods. Harry once asked why I was so fascinated with it. He knew I had brought other books. I just told him that it reminded me of something that I missed and he never asked again. Sometimes I would just stare at the final page."

"I wrote that a week before I gave it to you. I couldn't say it out loud but I wanted you to know. Especially if I was going to die. I couldn't leave you without you knowing how I felt. I debated for weeks about whether to tell you or not. In another life I would have told you the instant I knew."

"Tell me now. I've read it every day since we ran. I cried the first time I saw it." I held her even tighter and kissed her on top of the head.

"I love you," I said it loud and clear, I didn't need to whisper. I didn't want to hide anymore. My father would already be out to kill me so it didn't matter.

"I love you, too."


	6. The End

**Disclaimer:** In its use of intellectual property and characters belonging to JK Rowling, Warner Bros, Bloomsbury Publishing, et cetera, this work is intended to be transformative commentary on the original. No profit is being made from this work. Any similarities to other fanfiction stories are completely coincidental.

* * *

We all stood there on the ruined grounds of Hogwarts watching Harry finish Voldemort. I saw my mother and father looking at me, my father's eyes filled with hatred and my mother's filled with relief. I reached over and held Hermione's hand tight while she watched her best friend cast the final curse. My tattooed arm next to her scarred arm. A death eater and a mudblood. My mother smiled while my father scowled and shook his head. He grabbed my mother and ran the second Voldemort fell.

"It's over," Hermione said to no one in particular. I looked at her and knew that even though it was truly over, something else was beginning. I pulled her to me and kissed her. We had both survived the war. I was going to spend every moment of forever making up for lost time with Hermione. Making up for every word I had ever said that hurt her.

* * *

"Draco, wake up!"

It was dark in our room, the blankets and pillows were warm and had swallowed me, I didn't want to move. I slowly opened my eyes and saw my wife of two years. I had married her a month after my trial that cleared me of all charges during the war. Her hair was messier than normal, the way it looks when she has just woken up. She was sitting up in bed clutching her swelling stomach and moaned in pain. I sat up and wrapped my arms around her, concern flooding me. I felt her relax in my arms after a few minutes. She turned her head toward mine and said the phrase I had been preparing for.

"Draco, it's time."

**AN: Thank you to everyone who has read my first published fanfiction. I have several others that I am working on at the moment. If you have any suggestions for additional chapters to this story or other scenes you think would benefit the story, please feel free to review with ideas. I am not opposed to expanding on this story.**


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